Left Turn

[catscradle]

I keep getting letters in my e-mail from HRC and various other leftest groups telling me to make a stand and sign petitions and whatnot to have General Pace and Ann Coulter sterilized, lest they decide to have children together. Okay, perhaps it's not that over the top, but I am getting the e-mails asking that we all join together to shut these folks up or at least get an apology out of them if they insist on talking. And though it is very tempting to hirer a hit team to shave Ann Coulter's head and mock her till she cries, I can't help feeling a bit hypocritical about it. People like Pace and Coulter say things that are stupid and stuff we don't like. Some people even take them serious. They may even be dangerous with their words. But you know what? So was Galileo. So was Gandhi. It depends what side of the fence you're standing on whose words are dangerous to whom. Was I mistaken in my understanding that in the past the left defended the right to free speech without censor?

Do you really want an apology from Coulter? I mean do you seriously think the woman would mean the words "I'm sorry," unless it was tagged with "you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground"? I don't want to force anyone to say anything they don't mean. That's not just censorship, that's coersion. Instead of demanding apologies and petitioning/threatening the media to cut her voice, wouldn't standing up and using your own words better serve that purpose? It's not like the left doesn't have a voice. Al Franken, Randy Rhodes, Michael Moore - no one has swiped their mike away from them. Has Noam Chomsky been imprisoned and word just hasn't gotten out yet? No. Freedom of speech is either good for all or good for none. It's not about just letting the people you agree with speak.

The left needs to pull its collective head out of its ass lest it become what it despises.

Comments

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

*nods head in agreement*

Yup. If a left-leaning politician or media figure says something "controversial," the Left will usually defend them with cries of "Free Speech!" But if it's the other side, GLADD, ARC, B'nai Brith or whoever else will be having a damn cow.